AMANDA'S BASKETS: Journaling in the Dark!!!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Journaling in the Dark!!!

I wasn't too sure if I would be able to post tonight. We lost electricity just about the time I was getting ready to work on my blog. After making sure that there were working flashlights for everyone we went to bed...it was getting quite cold and the bedding was very inviting.

After snuggling down to stay warm and with sleep close at hand, WHAM, the lights came on! And I was wide awake once more. So I debated about staying in bed or getting up and posting. Guess what, both sides won. I brought my laptop to bed to write my blog!!!!

JOURNALING:

I decided to try something a bit different. Instead of a journal book, I am using single sheets of paper. For this time, I choose a heavy sheet of rag paper (8 1/2" by 11"). Using my ink (for stamping) and a cosmetic sponge and I had some fun creating two pages for journaling.

After folding the sheets in half, I just doodled a form with no particular shape, idea or design in mind and this is what evolved...

The shape reminded me of a woman dancing with joy, so I went with the idea of expressing joy toward all of life. And from there I decided to write words to express that joy. Check out these pictures to see how the design played out...

And here is the finished journal page...

(For some reason, the pictures I took for this post didn't turn out as well as I would have liked and for that I apologize.)

A JOURNAL PROMPT:

If your interested in journaling and I hope you will at least give it a try, why not try this over the next week or so. Grab your journaling supplies, be it an actual journal, or a simple piece of paper and a pencil.

If you want to create a background first you can use your inks as I did. Or you can use watercolors (even your kid's) and simply mix several colors to make a background that you like. You can even tear pieces of paper (maybe from a magazine, or flyers) and glue them down for a background.

When the background is done. Take your pencil and just doodle to see what developes. Once you are happy with it, you can go over the pencil marks with a marker if desired.

Remember, there is no right or wrong way to journal, only your way, so just enjoy the process and have fun.

Let me know how things work out for you.

Thanks for stopping by...see you tomorrow...

CRAFTING IDEAS

I am always looking for a small piece of paper to write down something which will later be disposed of. I decided to use some of the scrap paper of which I have a ton. I mostly use the paper for glueing projects. I decided to cut the paper into a small size. (Six pieces from a piece of copy paper.). But just having them sitting on my desk would get messy without a container. So, using a cardboard box, I cut it down to size and using a hot glue gun I glued the ends together. Using a picture from a magazine cut into pieces and stick craft glue, I glued the pieces to the box inside and out. I also used some decorative tape for the outside edges. And to finish the top corners which were not covered, I used straight pins with colorful tops. Looks nice and works well.

MAGAZINE IDEAS

(New) One article in the Farmer's Almanac 2024 is a list of trends. One I knew about is the trend to downsize in just about every area. Another trend that I was surprised about was called ''The Human Library' which offers people on loan to talk about specific subjects. Finally, more folks are adding pets to their family and as a result, stores are adding more pet food, toys and medication to their offerings. There's also a nice garden article which suggests mixing vegetables and flowers together for success.

RECIPE IDEAS

Have you every made Cherry Dump Cake. It calls for 2 cans of Cherry Pie Filling (21 ounces), a white cake mix, 1/4 -1/2 cup butter, melted & 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans. In a 9 by 13 pan, spread both cans of cherry pie filling. Add the melted butter to the cake mix and break apart the resulting mixture and crumble it evenly over the pie filling. Sprinkle the pecans evenly over the mixture. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 - 45 minutes until the topping is golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream. Fast, easy and very delicious.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

What if you want to establish better habits, then decide what habit you want to work on. Again, try an easier one first for that good feeling of success. Let's consider more exercise. Start small. Don't try to run a marathon right away. Set the amount of time, the type of exercise and when to do it to begin making sure that it is within your reach. If it works for you each week add a bit more. Walking is one of the best ways to get good overall movement but there are many exercise videos on YouTube of varying lengths and difficulty to check out. Change your exercise routines to eliminate getting bored. For hardcore exercise with weights, give yourself a day in-between to recover. Even on days you would rather not exercise, do it and see if you feel better. It takes an average of 66 days to establish a habit. Just think 66 days to establish a good habit for a lifetime. Sounds like a good thing to me...how about you?